X’s and UFOs: Ottawa professor closes the case on X-Files fandom

The truth is still out there, and The X-Files devotees will be looking for answers when the enigmatic series returns on Jan. 24, says a University of Ottawa professor who has doggedly investigated the show – much like Fox Mulder would a crop circle.

“There is a lot of tension right now about how the Mulder-Scully relationship is going to be handled,” says Emily Regan Wills, whose research on X-Files’ enthusiasts was published in Transformative Works and Cultures in 2013. Fans have long been divided over the series’ late-season decision to add a XXX to the FBI agents’ partnership. Notably, the new miniseries has severed that romance.

Two other mysteries need resolution, Wills explains: The fate of the couple’s miracle son, William – whom Dana Scully put up for adoption – as well as the show’s central alien conspiracy that was supposed to see Earth colonized on Dec. 22, 2012.

Wills’ examination opened the book on X-files fans. The show’s 1993 debut coincided with rising public Internet use, and its mysteries spawned some of the web’s first popular fan forums. Long before social media, X-Philes – as fans came to be known – set the bar for online communities devoted to shows like Lost and The Walking Dead. In fact, the popular fandom term Shipping – essentially fans who desire two characters to get together – originated with X-Files’ advocates.

For Wills, fan fervour is easier to explain than an actual X-File: “(The show) was high-quality enough to deserve your attention, but had holes you could poke at, think about, explore and judge … it wasn’t perfect.”

The cult series also rewrote genre conventions – crossing a procedural with the supernatural – and upended many gender stereotypes, Wills explains. Scully was “very much the right-brain” – scientific, rational, goal driven, not impulsive – while Fox Mulder had more traditionally feminine characteristics, “running on impulse and emotion,” she added.

But Scully divided fans like no other, and became the main focus of Wills’ analysis. “She is a challenging character,” who takes more twists and turns than Mulder’s “more standard hero arc,” the political studies professor explains. “Scully is an enigma. She isn’t a character that puts everything out there, so fans get to project things on to her … She is open to interpretation.”

Fan critiques often centre on Scully’s unexplained motherhood – coming after an alien abduction left her infertile – and the depiction of the FBI agent’s sexuality. Every time Scully met an old flame, or took a new lover, it inevitably put her in danger, Wills explains: “Sex and falling in love are a threat in the series, sex is always a source of danger… of victimhood.”

That theme is ironic given the reason Scully was almost miscast: “The powers that be at Fox wanted somebody more traditionally sexy in the role – more Pamela Anderson than Gillian Anderson,” Wills explains.

Mulder was not typical leading man material either – aside from his “conventional bad-boy” penchant for not playing by the rules. He was geeky, brainy and wounded. “Mulder’s emotional vulnerability is appealing,” Wills adds.

But both characters became unlikely sex symbols. Actors David Duchovny and Anderson deserve a lot of the credit. “They are both attractive, but neither is assembly line good-looking,” Wills says. “They are both unusual and interesting – maybe not the best features, but each has something compelling that keeps you watching.”

Scully’s “strength of purpose” and “self-assertion” set the bar for TV’s female detectives and FBI agents. “She was a rare, strong, female character – a whole generation of women’s sense of style (was) modelled on Scully’s business-attire aesthetic… (It became) what a strong, powerful women looked like.”

That’s one reason many fans wish things had stayed platonic between the show’s supernatural sleuths. With motherhood and commitment, Scully seemed to lose some of her power and competence, Wills explains. “The (writers) didn’t know how to put them together romantically, having a kid, and still be Mulder and Scully… doing their job the right way. I want them to be together…. I don’t think having a partner destroys your identity – particular when there is a world to save from ghosts and aliens.”

Sneak previews suggest Mulder and Scully’s baggage, and the show’s elaborate alien mythology, will be explored in the revival. At one point Mulder rails against spending “a decade of my life being led by my nose through a dead end.” After nine seasons and two movies, some fans felt that way, too. The widely-panned 2008 film X-Files: I Want to Believe didn’t help. Of course, the miniseries may raise more questions than it answers. For example, the infamous Cigarette Smoking Man has been revived, and audiences last saw him killed in a rain of missile fire.

Many X-files junkies, including Wills, want to see a return to one-off “monster of the week” storylines. “I don’t want to see six episodes about aliens. I want them to investigate things they can see; I don’t want them fighting invisible, unbeatable conspiracies. I want to see Mulder and Scully out on individual cases again, running investigations, and doing what they do best.”

Wills may get her wish. If the X-Files re-launch is a success, it will likely be the first miniseries in many. The immortal shapeshifters, mutants and bug monsters of the world better watch their backs.

The timing is near perfect. The X-Files launched just as the Internet gave voice to conspiracy theorists and alternative viewpoints – a world wide web of Mulders. In today’s surveillance state era, the truth is even murkier. The miniseries hints that the show’s alien conspiracy may even be a ruse.

As for the Shippers: “Is the breakup going to make sense or is it going to be a ‘fake’ breakup, not explored, for dramatic tension?” Wills asks. “Are we at the stage where the only way we can tell this story is by starting with (Mulder and Scully) apart and ending up with them together? Because that’s just (poor) writing. Or have we permanently sundered this relationship, whether platonic or romantic, that has been so central to the show?”

Mulder’s famous office poster proclaimed “I Want to Believe.” So do Wills and her fellow fans.

The X-Files returns with new episodes on Jan. 24 and 25 on Fox and CTV.

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